Layoffs
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Ubisoft confirmed last night that 38 staff have been made redundant from Tom Clancy studio Red Storm Entertainment, as part of an effort to “focus on its core expertise” of “developing innovative multiplayer experiences.”

Looks like more than just Neversoft and Radical felt the sting of layoffs following a meeting with Activision yesterday. According to reports, Luxoflux and Underground Development, the studio responsible for Guitar Hero: Van Halen and BMX XXX, were both closed completely.

Square Enix has lowered its first-half profit forecast by 65 percent to ¥2.6 billion ($28.4 million) following a round of layoffs. Blaming numerous “special factors” for the revision, the current exchange rate and premium severance packages for staff that were laid off were also to blame. Net income for its financial year ending March 31, […]

Ex-id/Ion Storm man John Romero’s latest project, a development studio called Slipgate Ironworks, has seen a bit of restructuring recently. First, the bad news: layoffs. And lots of them. According to a few former Slipgate employees who spoke with Kotaku, some 50 staff members have received pink slips over the past week. The not-so-bad news, […]

Just as Endrant Studios finished pushing Wolfenstein out the door, the big bad wolf that is financial troubles came and blew the developer’s house down. Or part of it, anyway. “We have recently completed a development cycle and have regrettably been forced to make adjustments to staff and headcounts,” a company rep told GamesIndustry.biz. “Those […]

Crystal Dynamics has loosed another 25 staff, Eidos has confirmed to Kotaku, following around 30 redundancies in January. “We can confirm that Crystal Dynamics has made a reduction of approximately 25 people at the San Francisco studio,” said the publisher in a statement. “This decision is a reflection of the continued drive to focus resources […]

Kotaku’s rumouring that Bionic Commando developer GRIN’s dropped between 100 and 160 staff, citing “multiple sources”. The firm, which has offices in Sweden, Spain and Indonesia, is rumored to be in the process of shuttering its Gothenburg and Barcelona-based sites. Layoffs at its headquarters in Stockholm are rumored to amount to nearly 30. Full thing […]

Up to 8,450 game industry professionals have lost their jobs since July 2008, according to analyst Wanda Meloni. Around 6,300 jobs have been lost from the North American trade, the rest coming from Asia and the UK. Meloni noted that multiple studios have bitten the dust during the period. “A handful of others are on […]

Empire, as expected, has gone bust. The publisher’s properties have been sold to New World IP in the US, and its 49 staff have been laid off. Administrator KPMG Restructuring has been appointed to wind down the company and is not seeking to sell the business. “Despite the fact that the gaming industry has been […]

MCV’s published an internal Empire memo which suggests that rumour of the company’s demise were on the money. “It has been widely reported online that we have entered administration – this has not yet occurred. However it is highly likely that administrators will be appointed in the next few days,” said the note. “It is […]

According to this MCV report, Empire’s entered administration. Says the piece, all staff have been sent home from the firm’s London offices and redundancies are being worked through. An official announcement’s expected on Monday.

How many people lost their jobs at THQ-owned Big Huge Games last week? This Kotaku piece is rumouring 45 got the axe. The site’s arrived at the figure by comparing the developer’s current staff page with a cached version. There used to be 125 – 80 remain. There’s no official confirmation as to how many […]

Layoffs are happening over at Big Huge Games. The Baltimore, MD, studio was informed by THQ a few weeks ago that if a buyer wasn’t found, the Catan and Rise of Nations developer would be shut down. “These actions were unfortunate but were necessitated by the difficult economic environment,” said THQ. It is not known […]

NCsoft’s reported Q4 financials, showing a 22 percent loss despite an 11 percent sales rise. The news comes nipping at the heels of lay-offs and restructuring reports on Wednesday. Fans wanting Guild Wars 2 will suffer because of this, with the game has been pushed into 2010/2011 to focus more on the release of MMO Aion […]

Joystiq is rumouring that between 60 and 130 people have been laid off at Mythic. Some of redundancies are apparently from WAR development staff, supposedly including senior designers. Mark Jacobs, however, made a statement on the official Warhammer Online site claiming that staffing numbers are attributed to consumer need and progress with game design. “With […]

IGN’s Matt Casamassina has published an email from an “inside source” that claims Factor 5 is to close. From the mail: We just learned from inside sources that developer Factor 5 has officially closed their doors as of today. That’s some pretty big news considering that those guys have been around for quite a while. […]

After earlier reports outlining EA’s plans to fire 400 and close nine studios, it seems the first outfit to be axed is Need for Speed developer Black Box. According to IGN, many of the studio’s staff are being relocated to EA’s Burnaby facility in British Columbia. Apparently the closure will not be immediate, meaning SKATE […]

As reported by Edge, Free Radical’s administrator – Resolve – has claimed there’s already been good interest in buying the developer. “We are very confident that we will achieve a sale if we decide to market the business,” said spokesman for Resolve, Cameron Gunn. “It’s a testament to the employees and the regard of the […]

EA’s just announced plans to lay off an extra 400 staff over and above the 600 redundancies it announced in October. The sum total of lost EA jobs now planned amounts to 1,000, or 10 percent of the company’s total workforce. The revised restructuring will result in the consolidation or closure of at least nine […]